I’ll be the first to admit: I catch myself using ‘literally’ in daily conversation, and it may be tough to permanently remove the word from our vernacular. But if you want to improve your writing, ‘literally’ literally needs to go.

In the above headline, what does ‘literally’ mean? If we label diseases by gender, are we dramatically hurting everyone? Dangerously? Mistakenly?

Aside from overuse, the word ‘literally’ doesn’t let us say what we mean. With that headline, I don’t know what the writer is trying to tell me. That makes me bored. And then I move on.

No matter what we write — blog post, cover letter or work email — the #1 goal is to have the person on the other end read the entire thing. If we’re vague, the reader loses interest and finds something more captivating.